Rob commissioned me to paint these for him - he needed to hang something on the wall to get rid of a nasty echo. I'm not sure if they liked the end product, but we had a lot of fun painting them together. 
This is a better picture of Lisa, and a worse one of me.
Their dog Riley wanted to come to Wisconsin with me. He jumped in my Honda as I was pakcing the car up.
Another shot of the paintings - they are six feet by three feet each!!!
The real reason for the visit was to see my bro and his fiance, and to check out their new pad, and to see how their whirlpool tub worked. :-)
Lisa and Rob are getting married this June, so it was nice to hang out with her and get to know her better.
Of course, Rob is a total clown.
We painted Easter eggs. (I don't believe that God ever died, but I don't mind the fun pagan traditions!) Isaac stuck with abstract expressionism, Rob made his egg into a watermelon, and I tried to get fancy and ended up with a green bug on a blue egg.
Lisa's were much more successful!
Isaac and I left on Thursday for a trip to visit my brother Rob and his fiance Lisa for the weekend. It was a lot of fun! Here's what we did on Friday:
I met my good friend D. and her daughter Maddie for lunch. Maddie's Nana came along, too!
Of course, the entire time both of us snapped pictures of our kids like mad, but I forgot to get one of D. and me together.
We've been friends for over ten years! Can the term "soul mates" apply to any two people who have a sublime connection (not only romantic partners?)
Maybe at Isaac and Maddie's wedding, we'll actually manage to have our pictures take together!!
I once rode a van, the color of blue
Here is my story, almost all of it true.
Our leader was Julie, an interesting gal
She is so kind and became agreat pal.
Julie's sister named Julie, who was found after all
Took Julie to Londonwhere she had a ball.
Then there's Linda the driver, so brave and so steady
She's always on time with the van warm and ready
And Bonnie, she's great, with a strong faith in God
But don't mention the spider or she'll head for the sod!
And good-hearted Sue, with so many pets
She'll save a cute puppy or a snake that eats rats.
Then my good buddy Lynn, as thin as a bird
I know she won't mind if I say the F-Word.
Tonya who taught me such a useful skill
How to ride the bus and avoid a parking bill.
Number two Linda who rides with such ease,
She needs a passport to see her daughter overseas.
Then there's Teresa who answers the phone
If you call her at work, she'll throw you a bone.
Lambert and Judy come last but not least
A great new rider and her companion beast
Some days when I feel like I just can't go on
I think of this single mom and my insides grow strong.
So please don't forget me, my fellow van riders
We're in this together, all us North Siders.
I joined for some savings, and maybe some sleep
But I got some new friends, whom I hope to keep!
I sent my poem to the Van Pool Ladies, and got this in response from Bonnie.
We know a girl named Katie,
She doesn't drive a Mercedes,
She taught us about countries on the map
and then she settled in for a nap.
Don't offer her a anything made of meat
or she'll gag and tell you what's good to eat.
We miss her stories and laughter
and sharing at work and after.
We miss you Katie!!!!!
The dogs found a snake and brought it inside when Isaac opened the door. There was no telling if it was an innocent garden snake or a venomous rattler.
I very bravely I put a bowl over it and got on the bed. I think the snake was dead, but it could have been only knocked out and could have awoken at any moment.
Fortunately, Page was only half an hour away and promised to rescue us.
Page's boyfriend Andy is very brave and helped us get rid of the snake.
Times like these, I don't blame the patriarchy.
As previously mentioned, I didn't get the FLAS (Foreign Language Area Studies) Fellowship in order to go to Bangladesh this summer and study Bangla. Here is why I am relieved.
Note: This post is clearly an attempt to act as though I'm strong enough to laugh off the sting of rejection.
1. Who wants to risk Dengue Fever anyway?
2. I won't miss the premiere of the new Harry Potter movie AND the sale of the seventh and final Harry Potter book in July.
3. Instead of visiting Bangladeshis in Dhaka, I can visit one in Ohio.
4. I can get my "Classical Sociological Theory" course out of the way this summer.
5. I will be able to actually RELAX a little.
6. I won't have to eat rice every day, every meal, for two months straight.
7. No load shedding, intolerable heat, wading through poop water from the monsoon floods, mosquitoes (well, not as many anyway, and certainly not the malaria-carrying variety), black boogers, or dhaka diet (dysentery).
8. I won't have to be separated from Isaac for two months.
9. I will definitely save money that I would have ended up spending on bootleg dvds and various textiles.
10. I really didn't need to go this year anyway. If the jerks reject me again next year, well, that's a different story.
I messed up on my test. According to my review sheet (above), I memorized the justifications for the derivation that is shown, but the question on the exam asked us to DO the actual DERIVATION and didn't mention the justifications. So I drew a nice little design and handed in my test.
I think I did okay on the other stuff, but only time will tell. I'll let you know how I did after spring break, which my brain officially went on today.
Oh, and to make today extra-special, I just found out that BOTH of my funding applications for next year were rejected. I think I'll just crawl under a rock now, back where I belong.
Why am I taking statistics? It's not required for my program. I could walk into my adviser's office today and say I want to change my plan of study and she'd be fine with it. I mean, I took the one intro class and got an A, so that's good enough on my record, isn't it? Because in the long run, am I really ever going to remember what a multinomial regression is? Or a likelihood function? Or an odds ratio?
I think at this point it's become a personal challenge, like I have to do this in order to believe that I have what it takes to get a Ph.D.
But this weekend, I was working on my stats practice exam, and the stupid thing made me cry. I've cried a lot because of statistics during this academic year. I know that I'm not dumb. The stuff just doesn't make sense to me.
Much to my initial relief and subsequent anger, I got the following email from the TA today:
"Hello all, the practice exam has some material on multinomial logits,
where the outcome variable has more than two categories. We haven't
really covered that much in class or homework, so don't worry about it
much when you're preparing - it won't be on the exam."
I'm still in the anger phase. I really spent a lot of time trying to figure the problem out, and then spent a lot of time beating myself up for not knowing how to do it. Sigh.
The test is on Thursday. Wish me luck.
Sidenote: Congratulations to my friend Tanya who submitted her Master's Thesis today!!
Isaac has been to school with me three times this week. It's been exhausting, yes, because I have to plan in advance for things like potty breaks and the fact that his legs are very short and he can't walk as fast as I need to in order to get to class on time. But yesterday was probably one of the coolest days I've ever spent with him since he was born.
He accompanied me to my office, where he played video games while I worked. Then we went to my stats class together. I was a little worried about taking him to this class because the professor tends to get annoyed when students make rustling noises during class, or when I raise my hand to ask too many questions, or whatever. I was pleasantly surprised, though, when he came over and introduced himself to Isaac, and gave him some colored chalk and told him to draw right on the desk. He even stopped the lecture once to come over and check out Isaac's drawing.
After stats class, I had to work for a few more hours, but there was nothing to do so I read book one of the Spiderwick Chronicles to him. (Highly recommended. I bought this book for him last year for his birthday but he was too young for it. It's perfect for right now, just a little bit scary, too.) We almost got through the whole thing before it was time to go to my meeting. Isaac was really excited because I promised him that after my meeting, we'd go look at the effigy mounds behind Ag Hall that we stumbled upon the other day.
Sidenote: Isaac is so well behaved, a fact for which I claim zero credit. My fellow students were all surprised at how good he was during classes. He really is a good kid. Case in point: I enjoy saying the word "ass". Isaac has decided that it's not appropriate to say "ass". So now I have to say "butt" instead. (But he agreed that it's okay for us to use the word when nobody else is around.)
After my meeting, Isaac and I decided to drive over to Picnic Point (see the previous link) to see if we could find those other effigy mounds. I didn't realize that it's a walking/biking trail, not a car trail, so we ended up taking a REALLY LONG WALK through some pretty muddy terrain. My shoes got all gross, and my legs were aching, but Isaac was so happy that I just didn't care! He kept stopping and giving me hugs and saying, "You're the best mom in the world!" I just drank it all in - the sunshine and fresh air were great, yeah, but the beaming smile on my kid's face was worth a thousand spring days!
We didn't end up finding any effigy mounds (well, we saw some suspected burial mounds, but nothing animal shaped) but we did have a wonderful day that neither of us will soon forget. There might be something to this whole "enjoying exercise as a family" hoopla that people talk about. I dunno, but I'm gonna make it a habit.
Masud left this morning extremely early. Fortunately I'm used to early morning drives to Madison. We had a wonderful week being together as a family. Masud has not had a haircut since Christmas, and we liked his new curly hairdo (see pics). I had to spend most of the week in Madison, but Masud and Isaac hung out a lot.
Isaac's birthay party was total MAYHEM! We had it at a bowling alley (really smokey and gross but lots of fun for energetic first graders!) It was a team party, because Isaac's friend Alex is also turning seven in a few days. I was in charge of the "bowling area" and the other mom was in charge of the "food area". I was exhausted by the end of the night after keeping the lines moving and helping the smaller kids bowl. My back is a tad sore. Isaac really raked in the loot, though. I need to really step it up when purchasing birthday gifts for other kids...jeez, they spend the money!
Now it's back to the grind. I need to catch up with some homework and Isaac is on spring break next week, so he'll be commuting with me to Madison. I'm sure I'll be ready for the weekend by Tuesday or so. Carry on, friends!
Isaac is turning SEVEN today! Of course, he is the most awesome seven-year-old on the planet. I am posting some pictures that Maddie's Nana took at a long-ago rendezvous at Chi-Chi's in La Crosse. Isaac was 8 months old and I had really really short hair. And that's my soul mate Debi in the other picture.
Isaac's birthday party is scheduled for tomorrow night. We're doing "bumper bowling" (those of you with less than league quality bowling skills will know what this is) and we're having pizza and cake. His best buddy Alex is also turning seven, so we're having a team party. I'll try to remember my camera. It's sure to be action packed.
1. Reconnect with spouse (who's plane lands in Madison at 9:37 tomorrow morning).
2. Read the book "Regional Advantage" and write a 1400 word book review.
3. Read the book "Satanic Mills or Silicone Islands" and reflect
thoughtfully in order to have something good to say during discussion
on Tuesday.
4. Read the book "Consortia" and write a summary for group project.
5. Complete statistics homework assignment on Logistic Regression.
6. Worry about the fact that I have not really started to research for the 30 page paper that is due soon.
7. Worry about the fact that I have to have a first draft of my group project by March 21st.
8. Do laundry so that I have pants to wear that don't have DQ ice cream spilled on them.
9. Clean out the hermit crab aquarium because there are bugs building a colony in there.
10. Give the dogs a bath. (This should really be number one because they reek).
11. Finish planning Isaac's birthday party for Friday (Including party
favors, order the cake, get a present for Isaac's friend who is also
turning seven, teach Isaac how to bowl so he doesn't freak out when all
his friends are good at it and he sucks.)
12. Call my grandma who has been sick.
13. Balance checkbook and pay bills (Save me please.)
14. Grocery shopping? Isaac drank curdled milk yesterday.
15. Pluck eyebrows, or else sign up for a Frida Kahlo look-alike contest.
And to top it all off, we LOSE an HOUR this weekend. That really sucks. Bad.
This post by Ilyka (via Twisty)is quite perfect. Read it.
And it also made me think of something Tanya told me this weekend (and she gave credit to Dr. Cynthia Enloe who said it first):
What does the word "radical" mean? Think of the radical sign in math - it means to go down to the root. So a "radical" activist is one who identifies the root of the problem, which may be seen as quite threatening to those who benefit from their privilege. This may explain why feminists provoke such strong reactions in people (and perhaps why this feminist tends to get emotional when arguing her point.)
So, my friends, please don't take it personally when I blame the patriarchy.
SAHM = Stay At Home Mom
WM = Working Mom
I have a button on my backpack that says "Every mom is a working mom." Staying home and taking care of a kid is really hard work, people. And there is no pay. Yes, of course it's fulfilling, but so is going to work every day and getting a nice fat paycheck direct deposited into your checking account! And having your identity hinge on something other than how many vegetables your kid eats!
I have just read a wonderfully eloquent blog post about a woman's decision to stay home with her daughter. I have three comments: 1) Reading her post made me recall the gut-wrenching feeling of thinking about going back to work and leaving my baby, and I also thought about the times that I actually locked my SAHM self in the bathroom and pretended I was sick just to be ALONE for a few minutes. 2) I concur about the lack of decent daycare facilities. It's ironic that most people who live here have two jobs, but that there is no really adequate place for them to leave their children while they work. 3) As a feminist, I've had to wrestle with the negative stigma placed on women who choose to stay home (as opposed to the equally negative stigma placed on women who choose to work). I came to the conclusion that it is extremely courageous to choose to stay home and raise one's children. It's also courageous to choose to work. Basically, becoming a mother takes a huge amount of courage, because no matter what decision you make, you'll probably have to take criticism from somewhere. The key is to make the decision that's right for you and your family, and to be confident that you are the best person to make that decision.
I think Big W summed it up best when she said, "any time you are going through an identity amputation, well, it ain't easy." For me, it required medication and lots of ice cream, but I came through it with a strength that I can now draw on daily (as well as enough abdominal fat to survive on when the revolution comes). I'm proud of how I've raised my son so far, and I think I've made the right choices. Three cheers for all the moms making all the choices that will affect the next generation. It ain't easy, but there's nobody more qualified to make the choice than you.
This morning I went in the ditch for the first time this winter. The roads were horrible and I was driving really slowly, but did a 180 and really wedged my car into the snowbank. I couldn't get out because I had snow packed on both sides of the car. After at least three jerkwad motorists drove past me, a very kind man stopped and offered to pull me out. (He was actually driving a huge snowplow for the county, but don't tell anyone because he could get in trouble). He had to crawl under my car and hook up a big chain and then pulled me right out. Then he stayed in the middle of the road with his big rig and held off traffic so I could turn around and head south again. There ARE nice people in the world!!! Chances are, he's a Republican (this being Marquette county and all), but he's definitely got the bleeding heart of a Democrat.
Today I'm trying really hard to finish a stack of reading so that I can have Sunday off. My brother and sister will be home, and then my gorgeous friend Tanya is coming to visit for the weekend. Let's hear it for reunions! Now if only I could concentrate on Latin American politics and labor laws. Happy Friday everyone!
I had to confiscate these from Isaac this weekend. Naruto is a cartoon on Cartoon Network that I had screened previously and found passable, albeit a tad violent. He bought some trading cards that seem to come with every new cartoon nowadays, but I didn't bother to go through each and every card that came in his deck. When I noticed the "Sexy Jitsu" card, I realized that I needed to go through them. The star of the cartoon, Naruto, is a 12-year-old boy, so who exactly is this show aimed at? (Click on the image to see it larger, if you dare.)
The Good: We had a huge snowstorm, and it was perfect timing because the snowplow has carved a trail through our long driveway, my dad shoveled a path to my car, and it'll be a beautiful drive to Madison tomorrow morning. We haven't had a nice snow like this for ages!
Also, Isaac and I had a great day in Madison on Friday and spent the night at Gina's. It was really fun to take him to my office and then to class with me. He got to learn about how I spend my days. PLUS we got tickets to see the Dalai Lama in May!
The Bad: I got at least two wrong on my stats test (of course, the two that were worth 8 pts. each!) If I didn't make any other mistakes (impossible), it means I got a B. If it's less than a B I'm dropping the class. I'm trying to pretend that I enjoy math, but the truth is, I hate it worse than I hate mushy cereal.
The Ugly: I was exhausted yesterday from the extra work of having Isaac with me on campus and driving home in the blowing snow, and I fell asleep early last night after watching "Ray" with my parents. Then I got up this morning all ready to hit the books, but fell asleep AGAIN in the chair while trying to read about class formation and labor politics in South Korea. Now it's 4:11, and I'm blogging because I don't want to start writing my paper. My work load is very light this weekend but I still can't seem to get going! I just want to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep. I have such a love-hate relationship with grad school!
My wonderful husband sent me such a thoughtful anniversary present in the mail. He did a good job this time. Masud has not always been successful in the gift-giving department, because although he is the most generous person in the universe, he tends to go to extremes. For our first anniversary, I got a chocolate rose from Kwik Trip. I think it cost $1.19. But for our seventh anniversary (I was in Bangladesh), he gave me a gorgeous 22k gold and sapphire necklace that cost way too much and that I'm too scared to wear. This year, he bought me some simple but meaningful jewelry - all different stones and designs, and a set of Nepali prayer flags that I've wanted forever. I'll try to post pictures if I can ever remember. Today I'm wearing my new onyx necklace - it's a big asymmetrical triangle - and the paper that came with it said that onyx "provides strength during times of physical or mental stress, and the ability to sustain and maintain". That's good, because I have a hard test coming up for which I should be studying right now. (According to babelfish.altavista.com, la dilación suprema means the supreme procrastination. I'm trying to learn Spanish by translating random phrases and trying them out on my friend Pili, who is from Argentina and pronounces the pronoun 'yo' as 'cho'.)
After I finish this test, it's easy sailing for the next few days. I've only got about 80 pages to read tonight for our seminar tomorrow, and then I've gotta pack my bags because Isaac is coming with me to school on Friday! His school is closed for parent/teacher conferences, and so he's going to see what it's like for mom on campus every day. We have to leave by 6:15 a.m. and he'll come with me to work and class. In between times we'll be taking the bus up to the Capitol building to drop off our passport applications, and then have lunch somewhere on State St. (Sadly, this will probably have to be at Subway, since that's the only thing he'll eat.) He has some coupons to use at the game store on State St. so we'll have to make a stop there, as well. Gina is going to hang out with him while I go to my Development Studies seminar, and then we're going to party at Der Rathskeller in the Union. We're spending the night at Gina's. On Saturday, we're going to get the oil changed, then maybe go shopping a little, and then wait in line at Camp Randall for tickets to see the Dalai Lama. He'll be visiting Madison on May 4th, and I'm so excited.
I'm hoping that we'll be able to drive home on Saturday even though we're expecting a huge snowstorm. Maybe we'll just have to spend the weekend in Mad-town.
Sigh, I can't think of anything more to tell you about, so I suppose I should try to tackle baseline constraints in tabular logit models before I have to take my test. Ouch, my synapses are hurting.
P.S. - Bangla-speaking friends: How do you say "procrastination" in Bangla? I was thinking "fakibaj"? So supreme procrastination would be "moha fakibaj"?
My 10th Wedding Anniversary is tomorrow, but look what the Fed Ex guy brought to my door today! It was a box full of my favorite misti (jilapi) and some other kind of sweet which I don't know the name for but which is also very good. My brother-in-law Mithu sent it all the way from San Diego. Mmmmmm.
(I know the picture is too damn small but I'm too lazy to go back and change it so just deal with it!)
Here's the story behind the pile on my desk. Last Wednesday night, I frantically cleaned my "office area" because I could not locate a recommendation letter that I got from someone in Bangladesh, which I needed to submit with a fellowship application the following day. I knew that I had carefully filed it, but where, I had no idea. I ended up going through the scary "miscellaneous" pile. I made three piles on my bed: discard, class stuff, and bills. I found the stupid letter, and in the process cleaned up my shit, or so I thought.
Did I mention that I got a speeding ticket last month?
Well, I today I decided to pay the stupid ticket, only now I can't find the damn thing. I've torn everything apart and put it away, and still no ticket. The picture above is my last resort...I have to go through the contents of my backpack. You can't tell from the photo, but something stinks. God help us all.
(What does one do if they can't find the stupid ticket?)
And, just to add to my fun weekend, Isaac is really sick. Yesterday he had a 105 fever and today he threw up AND has a gross cough/sore throat/headache thing going on. What's even better, he shared the joy with me. I've got a splitting headache and a fever of 102. It makes reading about international labor movements even more enjoyable.
This is why I love it here.
Here is a picture of my friend Maria del Pilar Casal "Pili" and me in our Development Studies Seminar. We had to read an article called "The Antagonistic Relevance of Development Studies". Once I got through the horrible difficulties with vocabulary, I learned a lot! How many of you know what "teleology" is?
Pili is from Argentina, and she promised that she'll show me around if we're ever there together. I hear they have good beef. Too bad I don't eat dead animals.
Awww, it's student Katie.
Me: So who do you think has a better chance of winning the nomination: Hillary or Barak?
Dad: Definitely Barak.
Me: Why do you think so?
Dad: Because Hillary is a bitch.
Me: !!!
Dad: It's a commonly known fact!
Me: First of all, what evidence do you have that she's a bitch and that it's a commonly known fact?
Dad: (flummoxed) I just know!
Me: And second of all, why does that matter?
Dad: (incoherent mumbling)
Me: GOD!!!
Isaac: What are you yelling about now, mom?
Me: Your grandfather is a misogynist!!
Isaac: You mean he gives bad massages?
| What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop." | |
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| The Northeast | |
| Philadelphia | |
| North Central | |
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| What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz | |
I'm the red person. I wonder why he gave me yellow hair.
Note: Maddie's Nana wondered if the general lean to the right is prophetic of Isaac's future political ideology. I guess, being an open minded liberal, I could somehow succeed in accepting my son even if he turns out to be a Republican. But I think it must just be that his paper was crooked.
This is obviously a picture of my parents' house because it's got two gables and the all-important satellite dish on top. The dish is critical because it supplies a constant stream of Cartoon Network into our living room.
Thanks for all the wonderful comments! I had a really crappy day yesterday and it was awesome to have some cyber-lovin' to come home to.
I've decided that I can never leave my blog, because I'm addicted. I have kept a journal since I was seven (and incidentally they got me in trouble more than once, but I never gave up!) My blog has replaced my journal to some degree, although I reserve the really juicy stuff for the secret pages.
Anyway, yesterday was horrible. I had a brush with some of the realities of international development, and kinda cried all day. Plus, Tuesdays are jam packed with work/class/class/class and I was feeling overwhelmed and not sure what the point of this degree is anyway, because this world is a horrible, mean place full of injustice.
But not to worry, I feel much better after eating two jolly ranchers and having a hilarious laughing jag with Isaac last night. The kid is funny. Is there anything funnier than a six-year-old doing potty humor? I think not.
And, did I mention this? Regina Spektor is my new favorite. Love it.
I had a great reason for starting this blog back in 2004 - to keep my friends and family up to date on what I was doing in Bangladesh. I became addicted to blogging, and continued to post even after I came home. I've made lots of new friends and maybe connected with some long-lost buddies because of this blog.
But I often wonder, what is the point? Do I have a theme? I seem to complain a lot about different things. Sometimes I try to write little op-eds about current affairs and important issues.
Note: Today I was going to post about the discourse regarding Barak Obama running for president. (A NYT article for which I can't find the link talks about how many African Americans don't think he's "black enough", and some political leader actually said that he's the first "clean" African American to run, and some people don't think he's American because his father was from Kenya!!!) I wanted to talk about how the whole point is that we should elect a leader for their abilities to LEAD, not because of what they look like. That's what it means to BREAK DOWN BARRIERS!! But I decided to spare you.
Anyway, there are plenty of other bloggers who have taken up this subject, and dealt with it much more eloquently than I ever could, so go read their blogs.
So then I wonder, should I make my blog into one of those "current links" blogs (like Rezwan's excellent blog about Bangladesh), but nah, that's been done too.
Wendell's got a Critter-themed blog. Gina's got the whole "domestic nemesis" angle. Tanya's blog is just hilarious and witty all the time. Then there are the legends: Twisty and Bitch - they don't even need a theme, that's how good they are. So what am I left with? I'm too ADD to stick to one thing!
I worry that nobody really cares what I had for lunch yesterday, or what I did last weekend, or how cute my kid is. Note: He's the cutest first grader in the WORLD. Things would be much more interesting here if I could tell all my secrets - if only I could be sure that my professors/friends/family/boss/etc. wouldn't read on certain days... I've considered making an anonymous blog, but I'm just too lazy to start over. Plus, I kinda like it when my friends visit my blog and make comments. I crave attention.
And another thing: I've had three people make repeated comments to me about how this seems like a big waste of my precious time. Is it that these people don't understand what a blog is? Do they think that I spend hours formulating each post? Or is it really a waste of time?
So what's an aimless blogger to do? Suggestions?
I've had the flu all weekend, and check out the weather forecast for tomorrow....
I'm staying home.
I've already posted about how I despise those stupid "Support Our Troops" magnetic ribbons that are everywhere nowadays. Here's an awesome performance from some people who also despise. (Warning: There are dirty words, violence, and sexual acts depicted in this clip. Enjoy!)
My favorite day of the week has always been Thursday. It's close enough to Friday to make me feel like I can make it one more week, and for some reason it's just a relaxing day for me. My high school biology teacher always wore a strange green outfit on Thursdays (green poly pants with a lighter green poly shirt), and we would joke that because green M&M's are an aphrodisiac, he must wear green on Thursdays on purpose because he wanted to get laid, and the phrase "green Thursday" became an allusion to randiness.
Anyway, today is a nice day. I drove to Madison yesterday and spent the night at Gina's because I had a late meeting. We made an excellent dinner - I cooked the dal, Gina made some green bean curry, and Rajas made the rice. To top it off, Rajas got some jilapi (recall my favorite sweet from Bangladesh) and it was so delicious that I almost died. Food and friends, what could be better?
This morning I had to walk to school in the sub-zero temps, though. I cannot stand the feeling of my face freezing off while my back is sweating. It's horrible and wrong. This weekend is being dubbed "the Deep Freeze", with expected highs of 2 degrees. Augh.
But I only have one class today, and this afternoon I get to meet with some like-minded people for fair-trade coffee and conversation about Asia, NGO's, education and all sorts of awesome things. I just love this town!
 | "I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best." |
